your post reminds me of a summer in my childhood, that helped to trigger my interest in words. In 1960, my mother took the entire family back to Dublin, my grandfather had been just diagnosed with a terminal condition.
We spent 3 full month is ireland. My sister Geraldine, who is two year youngr than i, had the worst time of it. she was constantly caught in a language trap-- she was just too young to learn a new set of vocabulary.
one day, visiting one of our aunts, she asked for "jelly" on her bread. my aunt kept insisting she didn't have any, and Geraldine kept pleading. Geraldine could see the jar of strawberry preserves.. and couldn't understand why she could have just a little.. and my aunt, was completely perplexed by the idea of jelly on bread..
For me, the time is filled with rich memories.. but i was a cheeky yank, who thought nothing of correcting my elders.. i didn't know why they called it a pram-- but i knew when asked about the pram to go over to the baby carriage. i was, luckily, just the right age, i quickly learned the money, and all sorts of wickedness-- day one i was taught how to hitch a ride on the open end of a bus! and i was able to understand what was going on about me.. that summer i learned a new vocabulary, and learned to love words.
when we first headed off to ireland, i expected to be bored--since a good deal of the time was going to be spent visiting relatives. but i was never bored.. the trip opened my mind.
Do any of you have a words, or words that mark the beginning of your love for words?
